Comingtee Plantation  Cooper River  Berkeley County

Basic Information

Location  Western branch of the Cooper River, St. John's Berkeley Parish, Berkeley County

Origin of name  Named after Captain Coming, who settled the land, as well as the T-shape made by the Cooper River's east and west branches coming together (7, p. 126).

Other names  Coming Tee, Coming T, Coming's T

Current status  The house stands inside the 10,700-acre Bonneau Tract that the state of South Carolina and The Conservation Fund acquired from MeadWestvaco in 2004. The SC Department of Natural Resources does have the property open for public use. Access is available to the Comingtee ruins and nearby rice mill on days without hunts. The gates on the roads leading to these sites will be closed on hunt days.

Timeline

John Coming gained land grants along the Cooper River, which brought him to South Carolina. He was mate of the pioneer ship Carolina, and later captain of the Blessing. He was married to a passenger on the Carolina, Affra Harleston.

1946  Grover Sullivan discovered the lost Parish silver. The colonial sacramental plate of Strawberry Chapel was placed in Keating Ball's possession in 1865 when Sherman was marching through the area. Ball had a servant bury the silver for safe keeping but after the war, the servant could not locate where he had buried it (13).

1949  West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (which through mergers would later become part of MeadWestvaco) purchased the property to harvest the lumber (9).

2004  The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources acquired the 10,700-acre tract from MeadWestvaco (12).